reser is ime rower to charge der mister ice iscem: or to subscrute NIG SI Raty: ur ne church of Eng The node of inquisition and > gure out of fasten in the aid world; and I vake #wa v ner aficacy in the new. The Whericus is also on the same unaiteracie You cannot persuade them to vesa arreus sence: to banish their lawyers quench the lights of their asvasege o choose these persons who are best I would be no less impracticable acry the popular assemblies, in The army, by which we must gowe fr more chargeable to us; Aspen, und perhaps, in the end, full as difad hastocratic spirit of Virginia and the southern colonies, it has been proposed, I know, to reduce it, by declaring a general enfranchisement of their slaves. This project has had its advocates and panegyrists; yet I never could argue myself into any opinion of it. Slaves are often much attached to their masters. A general wild offer of liberty would not always be accepted. History furnishes few instances of it. It is sometimes as hard to persuade slaves to be free, as it is to compel freemen to be slaves; and in this auspicious scheme, we should have both these pleasing tasks on our hands at once. But when we talk of enfranchisement, do we not perceive that the American master may enfranchise too; and arm servile hands in defence of freedom? A measure to which other people have had recourse more than once, and not without success, in a desperate situation of their affairs. Slaves as these unfortunate black people are, and dull as all men are from slavery, must they not a little suspect the offer of freedom from that very nation which has sold them to their present masters? From that nation, one of whose causes of quarrel with those masters, is their refusal to deal any more in that inhuman traffic? An offer of freedom from England, would come rather oddly, shipped to them in an African vessel, which is refused an entry into the ports of Virginia or Carolina, with a cargo of three hundred Angola negroes. It would be curious to see the Guinea captain attempting at the same instant to publish his proclamation of liberty, and to advertise his sale of slaves. But let us suppose all these moral difficulties got over. The ocean remains. You cannot pump this dry; and as long as it continues in its present bed, so long all the causes which weaken authority by distance will continue. "Ye gods, annihilate but space and time, and make two lovers happy!" —was a pious and passionate prayer ; — but just as reasonable as many of the serious wishes of very grave and solemn politicians. If then, Sir, it seems almost desperate to think of any ies. Between these privileges, and the supreme thority, the line may be extremely nice. Of ates, often too very bitter disputes, and much ill arise. But though every privilege is an exempe case) from the ordinary exercise of the supreme , it is no denial of it. The claim of a privilege ner ex vi termini, to imply a superior power. For the privileges of a state or of a person, who has rior, is hardly any better than speaking nonsense. such unfortunate quarrels, among the component f a great political union of communities, I can y conceive any thing more completely imprudent, for the head of the empire to insist, that, if any. ge is pleaded against his will, or his acts, that his › authority is denied; instantly to proclaim rebellion, at to arms, and to put the offending provinces under ban. Will not this, Sir, very soon teach the proces to make no distinctions on their part? Will it teach them that the government, against which a claim liberty is tantamount to high treason, is a government › which submission is equivalent to slavery? It may not lways be quite convenient to impress dependent communities with such an idea. We are, indeed, in all disputes with the colonies, by the necessity of things, the judge. It is true, Sir. But I confess, that the character of judge in my own cause, is a thing that frightens me. Instead of filling me with pride, I am exceedingly humbled by it. I cannot proceed with a stern, assured, judicial confidence, until I find myself in something more like a judicial character. I must have these hesitations as long as I am compelled to recollect, that, in my little reading upon such contests as thesc, the sense of mankind has, at least, as often decided against the superior as the subordinate power. Sir, let me add too, that the opinion of my having some abstract right in my favour would not put me much at my ease in passing sentence; unless I could be sure that there were no rights which, in |